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April, 1912] THE LIBRARY JOURNAL T 
V Olas 7 atNOved. OVER O12 
SCHOOL NUMBER 
Contents 
PAGE PAGE 
Frances Forsom Creveranp Liprary, AURORA STATE LIBRARY COMMISSIONS . . 199 
ING EY: . Frontispiece | League of Library Commissions, Eastern 
Epi1TorIAts ee LOT Section 
Libraries and schools STATE LIBRARY ASSOCIATIONS . 200 
School libraries Connecticut 
Library control District of Columbia 
Civil service ‘ . Massachusetts 
Municipal reference libraries Tennessee 
Springfield, Mass., Library Wisconsin 
THE USE OF THE LIBRARY IN THE GRADES. — LIBRARY CLUBS 208 
Eleanor V. Rawlinson ue yk, “elo Chicago 
WHAT THE LIBRARIAN NEEDS FROM THE SCHOOLS. Long Island 
— Mary A. Smith pas tee LOO) P| Rees yeyant 
| Syracuse 
THE SPECIAL LIBRARY AND THE LIBRARY SCHOOL. — 
: LIBRARY SCHOOLS AND TRAINING CLASSES . 209 
John Boynton Kaiser . eee ES auiyAS ; : ; . 
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh 
A CONSTRUCTIVE LIBRARY PLATFORM FOR SOUTHERN Chautauqua 
scHooLs. — Louis Round Wilson . 5 BY Columbia 
How MAy A PUBLIC LIBRARY HELP CITY GOVERN- aes 
MENT? — William H. Allen . » 66 WSO Illinois 
Tue Frances Forsom CLeveranp Liprary. — Missouri { 
Alice E. Sanborn s ee Ee New York Public Library 
T 2 < Pennsylvania 
HE INTERMEDIATE COLLECTION FOR YOUNG PEO- jekeaya 
PLE IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY. — Herbert L. Simmons 
Cowing io ane 189 University of Chicago 
ed pen we ; ; Tino: 
SCHEME OF SERVICE OF THE SOMERVILLE PuBLIC eats d inols 
LIBRARY 5 oh rtse Aen 192 | p ar6 
A NORMAL COURSE IN LIBRARY TRA Nei permet 2 As: Met.” ‘ 
s pee 193 Bibliothéques, livres et librairies. ; 
BI-STATE LIBRARY MEETING AT ATLANTIC CITY, Coussens. One thousand books for children 
Marcu 8-9. 1912 Z 194 Richardson. Some old Bergan librarians 
Se eG | ok Sayers. The children’s library 
REPORT OF THE BrIsLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE OF Wadlin. The Public Library of the City of 
RANGE) Gls « 196 Boston 
LIBRARY POSTAGE RATES . 196 PERIODICAL AND OTHER LITERATURE 219 
Tart’s COMMISSION ON ECONOMY AND EFFICIENCY Nores AWD NEWS... 220 
RECOMMENDS THE D, C, FOR LETTER FILING . 197 | [pRaRIANS b 227 
To tHe American Lisrary INSTITUTE . . 197 228 
LIBRARY REPORTS 22 
CONFERENCE OF SCHOOL LIBRARIANS ~ 107. menican 
AMERICAN Liprary ASssocrATION . 198 Foreign 
Ottawa conference BIBLIOGRAPHY AND CATALOGING 230 
Post-conference trip 232 
Pabliching Board COMMUNICATIONS 
An invitation to Westmount CALENDAR 28 
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS 
4 : PAGE SEMEL 
Pelee Ne Ep lishite Board ease ners cece oe eos 23 Jienkins; (CW. Re) Co... 7. Bocce mom ace born a 
Alene cidw.) Gs) & Sons... ee inside front cover | Library Supplies (Dealers in)..........+-+-++-+> 2 
PNIICIACAT Um BOOKS C0 srareyebetero, sicvarn fia sicis, «rs, sisi a¥elete 06s 10 | Lippincott (J. B.) Co.......-.+-.2-2++++- eens 14 
eimetcanesiINewSps COMpanyace sos. ace ccocenes : 22 | Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co..........++.+-++--- fh 
PNICenSOIMm Jegelxs). | COMs ct ects oe cae corse Mee «tes 15 | Lowdermilk (W, H.) & (Gojsnoowss vaoc soc Node a 
Art Metal Corstruction Company. ............ 4 | McClurg (A. C.) & Coss. cececeee sees ceecess aS 
Bakermicmiaylor Company... sn) sn'es oni)deieieces es 7 | McIntosh Stereopticon Co......---+++++-++++:: : 
poke msus Gleate BOOK mOhopmomritcry erases oe 28 Maggs Brothers......-- seeeeessee cere eseeeere 2 
Bonnier (Albert) Publishing House........... 28 |) Malkan (Henry)... 2c2.+2006+->2-5° 4th cove ace 
ooksellersy \@Wirectorye Of bade ckiiee sss cocci. 26 Nelson (Thomas) & Sons...-.-.-++sssseseeeees Z 
Brockhaus, IA eccciviere the DUG s Oso Se EO oe 25 | Oxford University Press.......--.---++++--+++: Pe 
Gapesell go-8 Cojctec cies OCR OO bnd 0 ato Binge Eee oe ISIE 16 Publishers’ Weekly, Office of...........21, 24, 2 
Bechiverae books Binding Cok. s. skioci «sv oo siset soe 22 | Putnam’s (G. P.) Soms....-+---s+++sseeseeees ‘2 
CUTICLE SEE PEL craters crite ereray ove ie eke oats siecelels.oraye 28 | Quaritch, Bernard........ 0 ..--see seer rece eee 20 
odd Mead&™ Con nie cunreh temas its bana bis octets 8 Rademaekers, W. H......- .---sceesceseeseces I 
PtreMe Bin din gt, Comccters cc ciretermesmie pierce crs ov oe Toe RandseNMcNally &Co.jsc s+ faeces eile se ze 
ect tone b ame bcm COs cere eteemree alaci een eevee ne cite 18 | Scribner’s (Charles) Sons........-.--++++++-+> z 
iBeldmannesoystem, Migs (Cotca samp tin- clonal 28 evel tee (Cay, Mixoal Wierd Oro aboutocacosconsupuce 13 
Globe-Wernicke Co........ .«: EAE Oe iS SotherameChs) -& Codjoei-uy. caret erties aa" 25 
Grimth & Rowland Press.ic.44.ass0cs oes sercen Toi otevens: (BAF... & Brows y. .: «teeter ce 2 = A 
tarper&, Brothers cist os sitern <i soles c.s sass e o uste Ov Wmpocokess (CHa AG) COW eimetciens cols fe ietetecnc manne necnto a 
Help Wanted........ ee an One oc See 28x Derquem,. Bi tewicicdeirecie) 2 ino clipat> vise esas 38 
IEligoins) (Charles) Mi )mocal Coleirets neice’ cle ot «e's Gay Licety Oe Tela > stem hteeteigc, 7 suite yo lee eee & 
Hinds & Noble...... Psiathto SAAR DRAGAN acree 26 | Underwood & Underwood......-.--+--+---+ vee 7 
Piciliston Millpudee eve eee on te see 18 | Van Nostrand (D.) Co....---++++-++ EN BOD dee ig 
8@e Gata) kee (Cian cogouc do ohs 1eGuoe oOo ue 2-3 | Wanamaker,» Johiiciise (0) psi otto ne = ea an td 


2 THE LIBRARY JOURNAL 


[April, 1912 


Henry Holt iol and Company 


P< 


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Middle Ages 


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34 WEST 33d STREET, NEW YORK 


A CONSTRUCTIVE LIBRARY PLATFORM FOR SOUTHERN SCHOOLS 
By Louis Round Wilson,Librarian of the Univ. of N.C. 


In a gathering of men and women assembled to discuss 
matters pertaining to the advancement of general education, 
it may seem inappropriate to raise the question whether or 
not the modern library, whatever its form, is considered 
seriously as a helpful, constructive educative agent. 

Upon first thought, such a question seems wholly uncalled 
for. Its answer in the affirmative is so obvious that no 
good reason is apparent to justify its asking. This 
seemingly is especially true so far as the Southern 
Educational Association is concerned; for it has expressed 
itself unmistakably as to its conception of the importance 
of the library as an educational influence by providing 

in its constitution for a library department and by 
giving a place in its general program for the discussai on 
of vital library topics. furthermore, as members of this 
Association, we have written laws providing for the 
establishment of rural school libraries from Maryland 

to this great state, and all of us who, in our childhood 
years, hung upon our mother's lips as we heard of fairies 
and princes, or in our early teens followed the heroes of 
Cooper and Stevenson across the printed page, or in our 
maturer years have felt the ennobling, vitalizing influence 
of some great book, need no argument to win us to a belief 
in the library. We know it is an indispensable agent in 
any: educational system, and absolutely so in one from 
which broad culture and enduring satisfactions are to be 
derived. 

Such, seemingly, is true, and yet, with no spirit of 
faultfinding, but rather with rejoicing that every 
Southern state has made provision in its laws for school 
libraries, and with a desire that we may not fall into 


Read before the Southern Educational Association, 
Houston, 'exas, Dec. 2, 1911. 


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+ WEST 34 STREET, | NEW ca 


error by taking for granted what may not in the fullest 
sense be true, I ask the question in all seriousness, and 
I believe with justifiable appropriateness, if an analysis 
of library conditions now prevailing in the South, and for 
which we are largely responsible, will show our works in 
full accord with the profession of our faith. Are we, as 
educators, convinced, and have we expressed our conviction 
in our works, that the library, as an educational instrument, 
is an absolute essential if the process of education begun 
in the child by means of the school is to be carried on and 
brought to full fruitage in the after-school life of the 
adult? JI ask it seriously, are we? The question demands an 
answer, and I shall attempt to give it. 


An analysis of library conditions now prevailing in the 
South will reveal the following facts upon which the answer 
may be properly based. 

First, it will show that, beginning with the year 1900, 
or thereabouts, a definite forward movement was made by one or 
two of the Southern states to provide for state-supported 
systems of rural school libraries. An examination of the 
proceedings of this Association and of the Conference for 
Education in the South will show that from that date until 
the present, state after state has taken up the work, and 
from year to year has so added to the number of volumes in 
libraries already established, and has so increased the 
number of new libraries, that now scarcely a county in the 
whole South is without some sort of school library facili- 
ties. I refrain from figures with a long train of ciphers 
following in their wake, however imposing they may be, but 
the number of such collections runs high into the thousands, 
and the number of volumes is well beyond the two-million 
mark. 

Second, it will show that fully fifty per cent. of the 
graded school systems of our towns and cities have library 
facilities of varying kinds, and that in many instances the 
work done by the library is very vital. 

It will show, in the third place, that through the 
personal efforts of schoolmen many well-equipped, service- 
able public libraries have been established and library 
clubs and associations have been organized for the purpose 
of making the public libraries of the South more efficient 
s ervants in the field of general education. 


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These are facts of splendid achievement. If there 
Were no others to be considered, I should withdraw the 
question. But a continuation of the analysis will show 
on the opposite side: 

First, that with very few exceptions, no instruction 
in the administration of school libraries, in the use of 
books, and in the supervision of children's reading and 
literature has been given by the Southern states in their 
teachers* institutes, normal schools and state universities. 
Be it said to the very great credit of Winthrop Collese, 
of South Carolina , whose very progressive head has led in 
many forward movements in Southern education, that for 
a&@ number of years it has given two courses of such instruc- 
tion, with the view of equipping its graduates with such a 
store of information concerning school libraries as would 
enable them to administer them to the ultimate good of 
their pupils. In my own state, with its state university and 
four normal schools, providing instruction for 3000 pupils 
during the year, and with its 2500 rural school libraries, 
not to mention town and city school libraries, only fourteen 
students were given instruction in a regular course in 
school library methods last year. It was our privilege to 
have this class at the state university, and to give 
several talks before students on the subject of the library; 
but this was the extent of normal training in this branch 
in North Carolina. From the reports I have had before me, 

I have been forced to the conclusion that a similar pro- 
portion prevails throughout the whole South between the 
number of school libraries and of teachers 


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pot 10t vino ,sotisidti Lootoe ytto bae owot aoltnem oF ton.” 


Mt vaxvos telunet 8 of nottouttent savin orew atoebute | 
 emelivine sve esw 3D .tsey deel ebontem ytetdhl Lootoe 
jevin of} bas (ytteteviaw etate edt te eaalo ettt evan” 

ost ht efi to teetdve edt mo etnebote ototed ecist Lsteves > 
donmead atdy af gointert feorrom to taetxe od? ésw' alte tag 
{Om Q@toted het event 1 atiroqet end mort . ent lowsd avtow ae 
-otq talinie @ tedt moleylonooe sas ot bootot need even I 
eit seewied dtyoe elodw edt tuodavotdt altevetq mofttog | 
etedoset to Sasa he ae Loomer Fake aR ice net 


ona 
eh “ub 


April, 1912] 


prepared by the normal schools to administer 
them. 

Second, it will show that of the Southern 
states holding teachers’ institutes, few, if any, 
offer in their courses of study any instruction 
in the subject mentioned or prepare bulletins 
for the guidance of the teachers in it. 

It will show, in the third place, that al- 
though the movement for state-supported high 
schools has been begun since the one for rural 
libraries was inaugurated, adequate provision 
has not been made by which the special and 
larger needs of the high school’s library 
_may be met. The high school library has 
been placed on the same basis as that of the 
rural school library, although it is clearly ap- 
parent that a more comprehensive library is 
essential to the best work of the high school, 
and a larger income for library purposes is 
absolutely necessary. 

Fourth, it will show that, although with 


the establishment of high schools, high school. 
inspectors have been appointed and sent here © 


and there within the borders of the state to 
aid in the standardization of courses and in 
the solution of local problems, no library in- 
spectors have been appointed to do a similar 
_ work in the field for the libraries, although, 
on account of the fact that no instruction is 
given teachers in this all-important subject 
by the normal schools and institutes, there is 
a correspondingly greater need for the ser- 
vices of such a field worker. 

It will show, in the fifth place, that the 
State Teachers’ Associations have yet to form 
library sections or to give place in their pro- 
grams in a large way for the discussion of 
library problems. I note with genuine pleas- 
ure a tendency last year and this on the part 

of teachers’ associations to give librarians an 
opportunity to present library topics. This 

year, at least in three states, the Teachers’ 
Assemblies and Library Associations are meet- 
ing in conjunction and exchanging speakers; 
but this is as yet by no means the general 
practice. 

Sixth, it will show that in securing legisla- 
tion for the establishment of library commis- 
sions and for the operation of systems of 
traveling libraries, or, to put it differently, in 
the endeavor to extend library privileges to 
- the whole people, the betterment associations, 
the women’s clubs, the literary and historical 
associations, and the library associations have 


THE LIBRARY JOURNAL 


ISI 


been the principal aggressors. They have led 
the fight, and so far as victory has been won 
it has largely been won by them. 

Further analysis, however, is unnecessary. 
I think the point I am trying to make is by 
this time clearly patent. There is, in all seri- 
ousness, a timeliness and appropriateness in 
my question; for if we but admit the facts 
as they are, we are forced to acknowledge 
that in the matter of providing such library 
training as will best bring out the resources 
of our libraries we have been woefully neg- 
ligent, and in the work of general state-wide 
library extension we have been satisfied with 
too small a part. If we hark back to the ever- 
convincing test that trees are judged by their 
fruits, we are driven to the admission that 
in this all-important matter our actions have 
belied any professions we have made to the 
contrary. We have not thought through the 
matter, and have not given it the large, care- 
ful consideration it demands and of which it 
is eminently worthy. We have but made a 
beginning in the right direction, 

A thorough analysis also reveals the causes 
producing this condition. In an attempt to 
formulate a plan by which the condition may 
be remedied they must be taken into account. 
Briefly stated, they are three: 

First, we have been so obsessed with theo- 
ries and methods of how to teach that we 
have lost sight of the alarming fact that 80 
per cent. of us are out of school by the time 
we are I2 or 14 years of age, and that if we 
are not trained in that time as to the use of 
books and the value of reading as a means of 
enriching our experience and quickening our 
inner life, the mere how of reading will avail 
us but little. The object of our teaching has 
been too much to teach how to read rather 
than the reading habit, and to cram our minds 
with unrelated facts rather than to train us 
in the use of books from which in after years 
we can find for ourselves the chart for our 
daily sailing. 

Second, we have had, through keenest ne- 
cessity, to provide the schoolhouse, increase 
the length of term, and train the teacher in 
what we have rightly or wrongly conceived 
to be the fundamentals. 

Third, too many of us have not known how 
to use books ourselves, and have experienced 
but little delight and inspiration in what we 
have read. To-day many of us stand helpless 


182 THE LIBRARY JOURNAL 


before an encyclopedia which contains the 
information of which we are in need, and a 
card catalog overwhelms us. We have not 
known how to help ourselves, and failing in 
this we have not seen the necessity of train- 
ing our children to help themselves. Again, 
far too many of us have never felt the fire 
of imagination kindled by nursery rhyme, 
fairy story, and tale of heroic adventure. In 
my own experience I was twenty-five before 
I became acquainted with “Alice in wonder- 
land” or read a line of Aladdin and his won- 
derful lamp, and I expect to make my first 
genuine acquaintance with Andersen and 
Grimm and their troop of fairy folk during 
the next few years, while my two little ones 
don their gowns in the evening twilight and 
climb and rest upon my knee before they are 
off for dreamland. Through them I hope to 
be led, even this late, if possible, into that 
wonderland which I failed to discover in my 
childhood in which fairy and prince and the 
dream-children of Eugene Field and the little 
boy and snowy-haired Uncle Remus are for- 
ever at play. The very pathos of it, that so 
many of us have grown to maturity without 
having experienced the subtler influences of 
the book touching and moulding us in our 
tender years! How can it be otherwise that 
we should be blind leaders of the blind, hav- 
ing thus failed to see the light? Or how can 
we be other than strong, rugged men, if such 
we are, possessed of undisputed power, yet 
power not full and complete, because in our 
early years that which gave swiftness to fancy, 
alertness to thought, breadth to vision, depth 
to character, in so far as it is furnished 
through reading, was mostly lacking? 

But to dwell too long upon the analysis of 
the conditions or the causes giving rise to 
them is beside the point. The real matter is 
yet before us, and I pass immediately to a 
very brief consideration of the subject of my 
paper, which, according to the official pro- 
gram, is a Constructive library platform for 
Southern schools, or a course of procedure 
by which the library conditions generally pre- 
vailing in the South may be improved by the 
efforts of the schools. 

If it were my high privilege to assist in 
writing a platform for Southern schoolmen 
or in mapping out a plan by the operation of 
which the library would be made a more effi- 
cient agent in the work of public education, 


[April, 1912 


a privilege which I think it is the duty of the 
Southern Educational Association to avail it- 
self, I should have it look to the accomplish- 
ment of the following ends: 


ADDITIONAL SCHOOL LIBRARIES 


First, continuing the practice already so ' 


splendidly begun of placing libraries in the 
rural schools, every public school in the South 
should be equipped with the best school li- 
brary possible. The few years constituting 
the school period are too brief in themselves, 
and the training too limited, to chart the 
pupil’s whole course. He needs to learn how 
and where to find his bearings after the shel- 
tering haven of the school has been left and 
he is driving before the winds on the high 
sea. In the case of the primary schools, a 
serious fault which injures the efficiency of 
the present system and which needs consider- 
ation is that of close supervision. Neither the 
state superintendent nor the county superin- 
tendent watches after the use of the library 
as carefully as could be desired. Of course, 
the difficulties involved are great and the fail- 
ure is pardonable, but if it can be avoided it 
should be. To do this effectively it may be 
necessary to follow the plan recently adopted 
by California as a whole and by sections of 
other states—namely, of employing a county 
superintendent of school libraries. Another 
weakness of the system is that adequate pro- 
vision is not made by which the individual 
collections can be freshened up from time to 
time. It is true that books are added occa- 
sionally, but some plan should be devised by 
which an exchange of collections could be 
made, if desirable, between neighboring 
schools. In this way each school would retain 
its reference books, but if its main collection 
was not a duplicate of that of the neighboring 
school, an exchange could be effected by 
means of which renewed interest could be 
created and each school would be benefited. 
Instruction in the use of books should be 
given, and such selections should be read and 
assigned for commitment to memory as would 
insure the formation of habits of reading and 
standards of taste. | 

In the high schools, a larger list of refer- 
ence works should be provided, and the cel- 
lection should be so amplified that in the spe- 
cial classrooms and the general library ma- 
terial could always be fourid at hand which 


April, 1912] 


would stimulate interest in the prescribed 
work, and would further develop the habit 
of reading and fix standards of taste, In other 
sections of the country, where the library has 
been used to great profit in the schools, the 
presence of from 25 to 50 volumes in each 
classroom, known as classroom libraries, in- 
sures, in connection with the general library 
of the school, the most effective method cf 
providing library material for every pupil. In 
order that the range of choice might be larger 
than it is at present, the superintendents of 
public instruction, in connection with library 
commissions or individual library workers, 
should compile adequate lists from which 
every need of the high school library could 
be met. Among the many excellent lists of 
this kind which would be unusually sugges- 
tive and helpful, are to be mentioned the one 
prepared for the secondary schools of Oregon, 
copies of which may be had from the Library 
Commission of that state, and the list pre- 
pared for the National Education Association 
and published at a cost of ten cents the copy, 
in its reports on the Relation of public libra- 
ties to public schools in 1899, These two lists, 
revised and adopted to meet the needs of spe- 
cial localities, are in every sense admirable, 
and I commend them most heartily to you. 


NORMAL SCHOOL INSTRUCTION IN LIBRARY 


METHODS 


After the libraries have been secured and 
proper methods of administration of the sys- 
tem have been devised, provision should be 
made for the training of teachers in the 
use of books and children’s literature. It is 
not sufficient to set the bookcase beside the 
teacher’s desk or place it in a corner and let 
it stand there. It must be properly used. It 
is the clear duty of the departments of peda- 
gogy of the various state universities, of the 
special normal schools, and of the conductors 
of summer schools and teachers’ institutes to 
give this instruction. If we wish guidance 
in this matter, there are a dozen splendid 
manuals which can be had at a nominal price, 
and the extensive report of the National Edu- 
cation Association, submitted, adopted, and 
printed in 1906, are at hand. 


SCHOOL LIBRARY INSPECTORS 


In continuation of this instruction, the state 
should provide a school library director or in- 


THE LIBRARY JOURNAL 183 


spector, who should not merely have charge 
of the distribution of the state appropriations 
for school libraries, but should visit, as the 
high school inspectors do, the various school 
libraries in the state and give them the benefit 
of personal advice and suggestion in addi- 
tion to that given from time to time by the 
central office through bulletins and _ special 
letters. This person should be a trained libra- 
rian as well as teacher, and his work should 
be the standardization of school library 
methods. The suggestion I am making is 
not an experiment. It has been carried out 
in practice in a number of large city school 
systems and in several states, and has yielded 
splendid results. 

The recent experience of a congregation of 
which I know will possibly give point to 
what I have been urging. At considerable 
expense and very great sacrifice it purchased 
and installed a splendid pipe organ. The Sun- 


day following the installation, the membership 


gathered full of pleasurable anticipation. The 
deep bass pipes, the tremulous flute notes, the 
subtle overtones and the splendid harmonies 
—the thought of all of these and the comfort 
and spiritual rapture they could impart pos- 
sessed every mind. But when the moment 
came for the instrument to win joyous, rev- 
erent tribute from every heart, the minister 
arose and announced that as yet its stops 
were not fully understood by the organist. 
In the meanwhile, it would be necessary to 
use the old reed organ. And so the new in- 
strument, capable of filling every heart with 
a glow of spiritual fervor, stood silent in its 
splendid beauty, while the congregation sat 
cramped in purse and starved in soul. In 
what whit is the case of the community dif- 
ferent which has taxed itself to procure a 
school library without at the same time hav- 
ing secured a teacher so trained in the sub- 
tleties and power of books as will enable him 
to make its splendid resources touch the plas- 
tic boy and girl and enrich the fountains of 
his or her life with the perennial warmth of 
song and story? 


INSTRUCTION OF PUPILS IN THE USE OF BOOKS 


Instruction should not only be given teach- 
ers through normal instruction and library 
methods standardized through inspectors, but 
definite instruction should be given every 
pupil in the use of books. Special periods in 


184 


the course of study should be devoted to this 
work, The pupil should be taught the pur- 
pose of the preface of a book, how to distin- 
guish between the table of contents and the 
index, how to use the index, even if it is to 
a set containing two or more volumes; how 
to consult dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, 
maps, etc., and how to use a card catalog. 
If need be, he should be taught to classify 
and catalog a small collection. In this day 
of modern business methods, when one can- 
not carry in his memory all the facts essen- 
tial to the conduct of the business in which 
he is engaged, it is absolutely necessary that 
he employ scientific time and labor-saving de- 
vices. Among these, along with the adding 
machine and cash register, is the alphabetic 
card or printed index. The mastery of this 
index principle, whether the pupil is to be a 
librarian, a banker, a lawyer, a physician, a 
politician, a traveling salesman, a merchant, 
or what not, is one of the greatest assets he 
can acquire, because it enables him to aid 
himself. If he goes to college, it opens the 
college library’s resources to him. If he be- 
comes a banker, he will find the principle 
employed in the handling of notes and loans. 
If he becomes a lawyer, he will use it in 
citing cases with which to support his brief. 
If he tends the man who is parching with 
fever, it will enable him to consult his med- 
ical library for the further study of the dis- 
ease from which his patient is suffering. 
Even if we leave out of consideration the 
moral and cultural value of the reading which 
such training will lead to, the training in 
itself is invaluable, for through it the boy 
becomes a self-educated man and is capable 
of continuing his education in his after- 
school career. In our manual training classes 
the boy is taught the use of tools; in our 
agricultural classes he is taught farm meth- 
ods and the use of implements; in our busi- 
ness courses he is taught the administration 
of the store and the keeping of its accounts. 
It yet remains for us in our libraries to teach 
the use of books which will make of per- 
manent value, through study after school, all 
that he has been taught in the other branches. 
In whatever work he engages, he will find 
this part of his training of service, and long 
after his geometry and Latin are forgotten 
he will find himself still in possession of a 


THE LIBRARY JOURNAL 


[April, 1912 


key which will unlock the store of informa- 
tion bearing upon the infinite problems of his 
daily life. 


THE ESTABLISHMENT OF LIBRARY COMMISSIONS) 


Every schoolman should busy himself in 
securing legislation in his state providing for. 
the establishment, equipment and adequate fin- 
ancial maintenance of a free library commis- 
sion, which, composed of educators and libra- 
rians alike, should act independently of the 
superintendent of public instruction’s office, but 
should maintain to all libraries in its . state 
an advisory, helpful relation. It is the duty 
of the schools to aid in securing this legisla- 
tion, although they are not the only ones who 
may be benefited by it. The experience of 
thirty or more states of the Union points un- 
mistakably to the conclusion that library work 
for the whole people yields the largest re- 
turns when such a special board of library 
commissioners and library organizers main- 
tain a public office and offer their services to 
any community, school or club for the im- 
provement of its library facilities. These 
should be the active agencies for the forma- 
tion of library sentiment, and by them every 
library problem should be considered and in 
so far as possible solved. They should main- 
tain public offices at the state capitals, and be 
in readiness to serve anyone in the state at 
all times. In Maryland, North Carolina, Ken- 
tucky, Missouri and Georgia, such commis- 
sions exist as separate state departments, but 
only in Kentucky and Missouri is the appro- 
priation made by the state in any sense ade- 
quate. In North Carolina, Missouri and Ken- 
tucky trained librarians have been employed 
as field secretaries and are rendering an en- 
larging, useful service. In Virginia, Tennes- 
see, Alabama and Texas library extension is 
provided for by the state through the state 
library or the department of archives and his- 
tory. This arrangement, however, even if 
appropriations are equal, is not as satisfactory 
as that in which the commissions are sepa- 
rate; for the work of library extension is apt 
to be subordinated to that of the department 
with which it is connected. It suffers, too, 
from the lack of standing out singly and dis- 
tinctively as an office having special work to 
be performed and of an importance second to 
nothing. 


April, 1912] 


TRAVELING LIBRARIES 


To do their work properly, it is a matter 
of wide experience that these commissions 
must not only publish bulletins for the dis- 
_semination of knowledge concerning library 
matters, send out library organizers, encour- 
age communities to establish new libraries 
and to improve old ones, etc., but they must 
be enabled to aid schools, rural communities, 
villages and towns by sending out a well- 
organized collection of traveling libraries. 
Up to the present, Virginia, Missouri and 
Tennessee have been the only states in the 
South to operate an extensive system of this 
kind, but during the present year over six 
hundred cases of fifty volumes each are in 
circulation and are rendering a splendid ser- 
vice. By means of such a system, any rural 
primary school may have its library shelves 
replenished by a loan; the debating and ref- 
erence sections of the high school library can 


be supplemented for a given period; a village - 


community can be supplied with a collection 
of books on agriculture, public health, do- 
mestic science, etc., in addition to a repre- 
sentative list of fiction, travel, history, bio- 
graphy and other forms of literature; a town 
which has never had a public library can 
receive a case and make it the nucleus of a 
free public library. Books can be brought to 
all the people, and the library idea can be 
crystalized into a. general forward library 
movement. Here, certainly, is a splendid field 
for cooperation on the part of the schoolmen 
with the librarians, and every effort possible 
should be made to bring about the proper 
establishment of these offices. 


ENLARGEMENT OF SERVICE OF STATE LIBRARIES 


The state library, whenever it is expedient, 
should be made to contribute to the library 
needs of the state. In the South state libraries 
have until recently been little other than doc- 
umentary collections, and have served few 
others than the state officers and members of 
the legislatures. Under the newer order of 
things, when every genuinely progressive li- 
brary is extending its usefulness in as many 
directions as possible, it should not be so re- 
stricted either in the character of its contents 
or in the extent of its service. In the South, 
especially, where large city public libraries are 
few and where distances to other large libra- 


THE LIBRARY JOURNAL 


185 


ries of other sections are great, it becomes 
more and more imperative that the state 
library should build up a strong reference 
collection and extend its privileges to any in- 
dividual or library in the state. Among the 
Southern states which have adopted this plan, 
Virginia has met with most signal success. 


MORE PUBLIC LIBRARIES 


The services of the free public library must 
be secured for all of our towns and cities, and 
must be more systematically utilized by our 
pupils and teachers. Unfortunately for the 
South, development in this field has been 
slow. The library’s place and usefulness must 
be more fully understood. Its work with 
children, its codperation with the schools, its 
helpfulness to study clubs, its contributions 
of books and periodicals and sets of stereop- 
ticon views to surrounding rural communi- 
ties, its public lectures, its activities in a 
thousand helpful directions—all this is too 


far-reaching in its influence for good and in 


its educational import for the South to miss. 
It must be secured at whatever cost. If there 
are no constructive library laws upon our 
statute books which will stimulate the estab- 
lishment of such libraries (and in several 
states there are not), they must be written 
and enacted. Public sentiment in favor of 
libraries must be cultivated. Vigorous local 
tax campaigns for the maintenance of libra- 
ries, as well as of schools, must be waged 
and won. The library must be directed in- 
telligently and made to serve. This is our 
work as educators. If we perform our duties 
well our labor shall not be in vain, and our 
reward will be great. 

The analysis of library conditions existing 
in the South to-day has been made, and a 
plan or platform, by the adoption of which 
it can be changed and changed for the better, 
is before you. I realize fully that it is one 
man’s analysis and one man’s plan, but until 
a more comprehensive and more thoroughly 
thought-out policy is laid before you, I pre- 
sent it to you, and in the name ofthe children 
of the Southland, whose duty and high privi- 
lege it is ours to prepare for participation in 
a large, well-rounded life, I call upon you to 
adopt it and see to it that the good which 
it contemplates for your children and your 
children’s children is happily realized. 


186 


mMOW MAY A PUBLIC) LIBRARY HELP 
CITY GOVERNMENT? 


In three general ways may a “‘trary pro- 
mote efficient government in its community: 

1. By doing efficiently the traditional ser- 
vice of a library, 7. e., by being prompt, up to 
date, pleasant to look at and to be with. 

2. By stimulating and encouraging efficient 
team work among the social, educational and 
governmental agencies of its community, such 
as women’s clubs, boards of trade, teachers’ 
assciations, debating societies, etc. The only 
fountain of youth ever found is the library 
that exerts a constant pressure from all sig- 
nificant old truths, plus properly related and 
digested new truths. 

3. By being efficient as a conscious influencer 
of government standards, conscious student of 
community needs, conscious helper of those 
who are trying to understand and improve 
government. 

Direct service to government can never 
fully compensate for failure to be an efficient 
library, any more than benevolence can take 
the place of efficient citizenship. But direct 
service to government will almost inevitably 
increase a library's general efficiency, because 
the library will find it easier to be efficient if 
it constantly measures itself against what it 
might do and ought to do for the thing near- 
est to everybody in its community, 7. ¢., city 
government. 

Interest in government increases interest in 
every other library service, because all other 
human activities reflect themselves somewhere, 
some way, in things done, or things not yet 
done which ought to be done, by government. 
I doubt if any act of the New York Public 
Library ever made so strong and direct an 
appeal to so many people as its announcement 
that it would welcome an opportunity to or- 
ganize for the city government a municipal 
reference library on government business. 

It is not without significance that the great 
manufacturer, who started a foundation for 
widening the bounds of human knowledge, 
started another foundation for promoting the 
efficient use and interpretation of knowledge, 
helped start the municipal research movement 
and a national training school for public ser- 
vice, should also be the author of “Triumph- 
ant democracy” and the public library king. 
Libraries are exotic growths until they dis- 
cover and serve the governments which in 
the main support them. 

City government needs the public library’s 
help. Without the help of libraries, govern- 
ment cannot reach the efficiency which we 
have the right to demand. Without adequate 
help from government, libraries can but par- 
tially fulfil their mission. 

Library aid is indispensable to government, 


Outline of an address by the director of the Train- 
ing School for Public Service, conducted by Bureau 
of Municipal Research before the 16th annual meet- 
ing of the New Jersey Library Association and Penn- 
sylvania Library Club, Atlantic City, March 9, 1912. 


THE LIBRARY JOURNAL 


[April, 1912 


because classified facts are indispensable to 
sound judgment, and classified facts are im- 
possible without libraries. No town, not 
even New York City, can have or will have 
a large number of fact centers. Hence, if- 
communities are to have available for their 
government their own experience and that of 
other communities, they n ist have libraries 
willing and eager to collect, classify and dis- 
seminate this experiet.ce. 

The library cannot do what it is expected 
to do without money—more money every year. 
It is not reasonable to expect, or to permit, 
the public to give the money unless it under- 
stands the only kind of service which a whole 
community will understand, and regard as a 
personal favor, service to the agents of every- 
body, which means government officials and 
those wishing to effect government action. 

For purposes of discussion, I beg to sug- 
gest the following definite steps which the 
public library in any community, no matter 
how small, including even the school library 
in a community which has as yet no other 
public library: 

1. Keep an up-to-date “Who’s Who and 
What’s What in Town Government.” 

2. Note especially new steps and proposals 
for improving government. 

3. Make this information easily accessible 
at the library. 

4. Arrange to take the library’s help to pub- 
lic officials and those studying public ques- 
tions, if they fail to come to the library. No 
knowledge becomes universal which is not 
easy to obtain. That is the motive and the 
secret of successful advertising, and that is 
why cigar stores are located at every turn, 
instead of being placed on fifth floors or back 
alleys. 

5. Separate and advertise information bear- 
ing upon current public questions as they 
arise, as libraries now separate and advertise 
new fiction. 

6. Ask officials how the library may help 
them. 

7. Tell officials how the library may help 
them. As Librarian Bostwick, of St. Louis, 
wrote to St. Louis officials regarding their 
municipal reference library: 

“No ordinance need be passed, and no de- 
partment of the city government need try any 
new scheme, measure or device without first 
having full knowledge of what other cities or 
corporations have done along similar lines, 
and with what degree of success.” 

8. Describe briefly in your local paper or in 
your bulletin, as the New York Public Library 
is now doing, the new accessions of docu- 
ments that relate to local problems, documents 
that include practical special mention of arti- 
cles in magazines. Such advertising would 
undoubtedly lead special students to supple- 
ment your current funds for books and docu- 
ments. 

9. Offer to help answer circular or special 
letters of inquiry which come to city officials, 
and then file the results for later use by other 


